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Dust: An Elysian Tail Review

Humble Heart’s Dust: An Elysian Tail was the winner of the 2009 Dream.Build.Play challenge and because of this it was pick up and published by Microsoft instead of just going onto the indie games channel of Xbox Live. Winning that competition and showing off the games potential was one of the best things that could have happened for the game. It gave them more money to create this masterpiece that plays like platformers of old and is one of the breakout games of 2012.

Pros:

Combat: The combat in Dust is very simple but I never got tired of it and always wanted to go deeper into the game. The X and Y buttons account for your attacks and can be comboed together for devastating damage. You eventually get access to a whirlwind attack that can be combined with Fidgets ranged attack to hit enemies hundreds of times in mere seconds. This whirlwind can also be used when jumping to soar through the air. These easily mastered controls combined with the detailed graphics make all the fighting you will have to do easy on the eyes and enjoyable.

Graphics: Dust has a graphic style that may as well be considered moving art. It is so pretty it will melt your eyes only to put them back together with the promise of more gorgeous adventures. The whole game is hand drawn and you can see the love that was put into it from all the amazing details.

Cameos: Stan Lee may be the king of cameos but the indie community are the ones that make appearances here. You will find friends like Gomez from Fez, Tim from Braid, The Kid from Bastion, and the Maw. Other games like Super Meat Boy, Audio Crew, Spelunky and the Dishwasher series are all represented as well. These appearances aren’t the only thing to make you smile because many pop culture references made it into the game as well. This really was a service and I was happy to see these things make it into the game.

Avatar Awards: The game comes with some avatar award Tshirts based off the three main characters of the game. The gorgeous art of Dust, Fidget, and Ahrah are all on these shirts that you avatar can show off when playing games that utilize them. They are gained at various story points in the game and I really enjoyed unlocking them.

Content Galore: With the amount of content that Dust has, it could have easily sold for twenty dollars and still have been worth it. At the price of fifteen dollars it is a steal and the main story alone will have you playing for hours on end. If you were to do all of the side missions, harder difficulties, and full percentage complete we are talking even more hours and it would be a better deal than some retail games.

Cons:

Fidget: Dust has two companions on his adventure, a sword named Ahrah and the flying creature named Fidget. Fidget is similar to Navi from the legend of Zelda series in that she is a guide around the world and she can tell when treasure is near. She is also annoying in the same way that Navi is and she lives up to her name and makes you Fidget in your seat sometimes when she talks.

In Conclusion:

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a beautiful game and a great way to end the Summer of Arcade for 2012. you will go on an epic adventure that will bring you deep within the world of the game. It will also bring back many memories of older side scrolling games and is a true fan service that I would reccomend to anyone.